Sidamo Coffee Beans: Flavor Profile and Taste Introduction

Ethiopian Coffee

Ethiopia grows coffee on plateaus above 1,500 meters. The seven Harar plateaus are especially notable: they are the birthplace of Arabica coffee. Ethiopia still holds many native coffee forests, which makes it a genuine coffee gene bank — a living reserve that may hold answers to many of the challenges facing coffee today. The quality of Ethiopian beans is exceptionally high, and their flavors are remarkably diverse in a way few countries can match.

As for processing, some regions use the natural (dry) method, others wash, and some use both — Sidamo among them. That variety is one reason Ethiopian coffee tastes so wide-ranging. The country's three major producing regions are Djimmah in the west, Sidamo in the center, and Harar in the east. The most distinctive coffee of them all is Yirgacheffe, from Sidamo province. It combines fruit, florals, and honey-like sweetness with a tea-like quality that leaves a lasting impression — and it is where many drinkers first set foot in the world of specialty coffee.

At the same time, the wild character of Djimmah and the wine-like aroma that defines Harar have their own devoted followings. Ethiopian coffee varies a great deal from batch to batch, so pay attention to lot numbers when buying: two bags stamped with the same region can taste completely different. It is also worth knowing that early-harvest Ethiopian coffee tends to be the better coffee, the reverse of the pattern in many other origins.

Sidamo Coffee

Washed Sidamo is bright and clean, with clear, luminous fruit acidity and rich, wine-like aromas. Beneath that sit subtle notes of tea leaves, roses, citrus, and apricot blossom. The wet aroma opens into dark chocolate, berries, and honey sweetness. Balance is excellent, the sweetness is pronounced, and the finish is cocoa-like.

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research center devoted to sharing coffee knowledge with everyone — freely, and for no reason other than helping more people fall in love with the drink. It also holds three coffee discount events each month, because the aim is to bring the best coffee at the lowest possible prices to more friends. That has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past six years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Yirgacheffe sits inside Sidamo, so these three FrontStreet selections are the natural place to start with the region.

FrontStreet Washed Yirgacheffe. The classic introduction to Ethiopian coffee, known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like body. With its accessible price, it has become the first specialty bean for a great many drinkers.

FrontStreet Gedeb Cooperative. Yirgacheffe is not one place but many small districts and villages, some of them home to experienced cooperatives. Gedeb is the best-known — a station at the southeastern edge of Yirgacheffe that began as part of the Worka cooperative under the YCFCU umbrella before being singled out as a single origin as buyers pushed for traceability. It follows the most traditional washed processing, and the result has none of the old bitterness: clean, bright citrus and lemon acidity with jasmine fragrance, the kind of cup people fall for on the first sip.

FrontStreet Natural Red Cherry. Also from Yirgacheffe, and fully ripe cherry, sun-dried. Only whole, healthy, fully ripe fruit is picked. It is sorted again at the mill, then spread on raised beds to dry, turned every 2-3 hours during the first days so the fruit is not over-fermented by uneven heat. After three to five weeks, the dried fruit is stripped off mechanically and the beans go to storage. Because they dry with the fruit still on, the cup keeps the classic Yirgacheffe profile while picking up sun-dried tropical fruit: citrus acidity, berry juiciness, honey sweetness, and a creamy smoothness.